


The Inevitable End of S.H.I.E.L.D.

by HalfAnachronism



Category: Avengers, Marvel
Genre: Deaf Clint Barton, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-10
Updated: 2014-06-10
Packaged: 2018-02-04 02:28:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1762939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalfAnachronism/pseuds/HalfAnachronism
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stark Tower has been a little too quiet lately.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Inevitable End of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Stark Tower had been creepily quiet for months on end now. Tony and Pepper would wake up, drag themselves down the stairs to make coffee and breakfast each morning, and wait for the Avengers to come downstairs to join them in a silent breakfast. Occasionally someone would say something, usually a remark about the week’s weather or that they have a doctor’s appointment that afternoon, but mostly the only sound to be heard was the sound of the forks scraping against the plates. All of the Avengers, Pepper, Bucky, and Sam would all sit at this small table and not talk, day after day, except for Clint, who never came down from his room anymore.

Soon a year since they had last seen Natasha would go by as if nothing had ever happened. They had searched for her, but had given up after a while, because there was absolutely no trace of her. Natasha was not one to be taken captive, and whenever there was no sign of her it was usually of her own accord. Her disappearance hung over them all like a dark gray cloud.

Things just weren’t the same without Natasha. Nobody realized how much things could change with just one person missing. They were all so upset about Natasha going missing that they just remained silent. It was awkward, but no one could face the fact that the infamous yet amazing Black Widow had either been captured, or had ran away to who-knows-where to do who-knows-what. They were scared that she was hurt, or dead, or that she was being tortured for answers about S.H.I.E.L.D, or that she had ran off to betray them. 

Steve had tried to silently figure it all out: there was no way Natasha could be held captive this long, she would have surely been able to break out, right? Maybe she hadn’t come back because it would endanger them. Or maybe she was never really an Avenger, just another Russian spy. Steve didn’t want to admit it to himself, but it was completely possible.

He knew everyone blamed themselves. Pepper was probably thinking, “I should have been nicer to Natasha,”. Bruce was probably thinking “I shouldn’t have hulked out on her that one time, even though it was an accident,”. Coulson, even though he was too busy with S.H.I.E.L.D. to hang around any of them at the time, was probably blaming himself too.

Sam had once tried to bring up the topic of Natasha, just after they tacitly gave up searching. “Why don’t we try to remember all the good times we had with Natasha?” he remarked, with a hopeful yet fake smile.

“Don’t talk about her like she’s dead.” Clint said, and he went up to his room, and that was the last time any of them had ever seen him outside of his room.

Steve knew everyone was thinking about her at all times. If she HAD been kidnapped, that was terrifying, because NOBODY kidnaps Black Widow and lives to tell the tale. But if she was kidnapped, that meant that whatever kidnapped her was growing stronger, and was probably going to attack S.H.I.E.L.D. eventually.

Eventually. Bruce thought of the word eventually often. Just after he had turned into the Hulk for the first time he thought to himself, “I can fix this. Eventually.” When Loki was causing trouble, Bruce thought, “It will all be okay, eventually.” Now his only thoughts were “Natasha will come back. Eventually. Right?” The fact that his thoughts included “Right?”, as if he was unsure of was he was reassuring to himself, made him nervous. Hydra had taken over S.H.I.E.L.D., and anything could happen. It made the word ‘eventually’ irrelevant. “S.H.I.E.L.D. will be okay, right?”

Thor was probably the most nervous of them all. He had secretly asked Heimdall, the gatekeeper who sees everything, if he could see Natasha. Heimdall said no. Thor did not tell anyone else this, as he thought it would just make everyone more worried.

There was a knock at the door.

Tony stood to answer it. When he opened the door, what he saw did not hit him immediately; all the details sunk in one at a time. Black tank top, red hair, metal arm, the Hydra symbol burned into the pale collarbone of none other than Natasha Romanoff. 

Tony hugged her, and she remained standing stiffly. She followed him inside but remained silent, even when Stark Tower erupted with gasps. 

Bucky seemed to be the first to notice her right arm, which, like his left arm, was made completely out of metal. “Natasha.... what did Hydra do to you?”

“I fell.” Natasha’s semi-raspy voice echoed across the living room as Pepper got up to go get Clint from his room.

Merely moments later, Clint galloped down the stairs. When he saw Natasha, he ran directly into hugging her.

“Nat....” Clint whispered into her hair, still with his arms wrapped tight around her as if he was never going to let her escape ever again.

“Clint.” Natasha responded awkwardly.

There were so many people looking at her. Were these people her friends? According to all the research she had done, they were. Since she couldn’t remember anything from before she worked with Hydra, she accurately guessed she had been brainwashed and tried to escape. When she finally did escape, she tried to figure out who she once was, which lead her here, to Stark Tower, but something told her she could never be the same Natasha Romanoff. She was just Black Widow now, just an assassin. 

The room was silent for just a second, and then Clint kissed Natasha. She stood there, her arms very flimsily wrapped around him, like she didn’t care at all. She did care, however, or at least she knew that she used to, and she wanted to.

When Clint pulled away, he signed to her, “Are you okay?”

“Yes.” Natasha signed back. “I... I love you.”

“I love you too.” Clint signed with a smile, taking Natasha’s hand with the hand he wasn’t using to sign.

“Natasha, Hydra probably brainwashed you,” Bucky started. He knew what she was going through, even after learning who he once was he knew he wasn’t the same person. Maybe he could help Natasha.

“I am aware of that.” Natasha responded flatly.

The room became silent again. Thor later broke the silence by stating, “But is Hydra going to make attempts on S.H.I.E.L.D. yet again?”

“I believe so.”

“Then we better get prepared.” Tony said, clapping his hands together. “This time we’re gonna take Hydra down once and for all. It can’t be that hard, now that we’ve got two ex-Hydra agents.”

“Hydra has grown stronger. You will not be able to fix this.”

Pepper questioned, “What do you mean?” 

Natasha sighed. “When they brainwashed me they left every piece of information I knew about S.H.I.E.L.D., and then they asked me questions. They know everything now.”

Steve remarked, “Well this is great. But at least we’re glad to have you back, Natasha.”

Clint smiled and added, “Yeah. It’s good to see you again.”

Natasha attempted a fake smile and replied to Clint, “Yeah, it’s good to see you again too.”


End file.
